California Title 24 - Recessed Lighting, Home Lighting, Indoor Lighting, Air Tight

The states of California, Washington, Colorado, and 30 other states* now require you to use Air Tight Recessed Downlighting. Our government's attempt at solving both lighting energy usage and air leakage in recessed cans has proven challenging. Installing airtight recessed lighting will save energy by avoiding air leakage into unconditioned spaces. In fact, in 33 states*, building energy codes now require airtight fixtures in all insulated ceilings. If you want details on YOUR state's Air Tight Recessed requirements, then please contact your state's energy commission.

Below information primarily applies California Residents BUT if you live
OUTSIDE of California, we highly suggest reading the above paragraph.

The California Energy Commission's Title 24

A new law for California Residents known as Title 24 will be heavily enforced in 2006. If you are not a California Resident, you may still be interested in using the air-tight series of housings and trims to make your home more energy efficient which saves you money and helps decrease the depletion of our planet's resources.

The Energy Commission adopted the 2005 changes to the Building Energy Efficiency Standards for a number of compelling reasons:

To respond to California's energy crisis to reduce energy bills, increase energy delivery system reliability, and contribute to an improved economic condition for the state; To emphasize energy efficiency measures that save energy at peak periods and seasons, improve the quality of installation of energy efficiency measures, incorporate recent publicly funded building science research, and collaborate with California utilities to incorporate results of appropriate market incentives programs for specific technologies.

If you are a California resident, you must be aware of the California Energy Commission's Codes for the state of California (known as Title 24). This code primarily applies to projects that will need lighting that are going to be permitted - specifically newly constructed projects, remodels and additions. Again, this applies to projects whether new or remodel that are going to be permitted. You can click this link for full details of the California Title 24 code's lighting section. Below, we have included a brief summary but please keep in mind that we are not responsible for any misinterpretation of our summary. This is why we have provided you with the link above which we highly suggest you review the California Energy Commissions's full details.

Below is our summarized interpretation of California Title 24's Lighting Requirements:

1) You can still use incandescent lighting except for in kitchens. Wherever you're allowed to use incandescent, you must meet the following requirements: a) the housing must be air-tight type which can be used with an air-tight or non-air-tight trim, you may instead use an IC Only* (Non-Air-Tight) Housing but the trim you use must be air-tight approved; b) You must also use a California Title 24 Approved Vacancy sensor or a dimmer (dimmer does not have to be a California Title 24 type).

(And again, this is our interpretation of the codes. We highly suggest you click here and read the full energy commissions details.)

2) For kitchens, you can still use incandescent lighting with the above requirements, but with the additional requirement that every watt of incandescent you use must be equal to every watt of fluorescent you use in that kitchen.

3) Fluorescent lighting must meet the following conditions: a) Must have an energy efficient electronic ballast (no magnetic ballasts allowed); b) the housing must be air-tight type which can be used with an air-tight or non-air-tight trim, you may instead use an IC Only* (Non-Air-Tight) Housing but the trim you use must be air-tight approved.

Below is the California Energy Commission's Summary of California Title 24's Lighting Requirements

Introduction and Scope

This chapter is a one-stop place where a builder, contractor, or lighting designer can get the information they need about residential lighting in low-rise buildings and in the dwelling units of high-rise buildings.

For residential buildings, all of the lighting requirements are mandatory measures. Therefore, lighting energy is not part of the energy budget for the whole building performance method, except as part of the standard assumption on internal heat gains that is assumed to be the same for all buildings. There are no tradeoffs between lighting and other building features.

The lighting requirements apply to alterations and additions (including replacements) as well as newly-constructed buildings. All new luminaires that are permanently installed must be high efficacy, but existing luminaires may stay in place.

The Standards apply only to permanently installed luminaires (i.e., plug-in luminaires are not required to meet these requirements).

What's New for 2005

The lighting requirements have been simplified and expanded for the 2005 update of the Standards with particular emphasis on efficiency measures that are easily inspected and verified by building inspectors on the job site. The concepts of "general lighting" and "task lighting" have been eliminated as a basis for code compliance.

The most dramatic change since the previous Standards is that high efficacy luminaires are required for almost all rooms in residential buildings. Exceptions are made in kitchens for a limited percentage of watts if the luminaires are on a separate circuit, or in other specified rooms if the luminaires are controlled by vacancy sensors or dimmers². In addition, trade-offs between the high efficacy requirement in specific rooms is removed, and all exterior luminaires attached to a building are required to be either high efficacy luminaires or controlled by both a photocontrol and motion sensor as well. The specific language for these requirements can be found in §150(k) of the proposed 2005 Standards.

2005 Residential Compliance Manual March 2005
The requirements apply only to permanently installed luminaires, i.e., luminaires that are part of the house, as opposed to portable luminaires such as torchieres or table lamps that are provided by the occupant. Permanently installed luminaires include ceiling luminaires, chandeliers, vanity lamps, wall sconces and any other type of luminaire that is a permanent part of the house.

The new requirements may be summarized as follows:

• Kitchens. At least half the installed wattage of luminaires in kitchens shall be high efficacy and the ones that are not must be switched separately.

• Lighting in Bathrooms, Garages, Laundry Rooms and Utility Rooms. All luminaires shall either be high efficacy or shall be controlled by a vacancy sensor.

• Other Rooms. All luminaires shall either be high efficacy or shall be controlled by a vacancy sensor or dimmer. Closet that are less than 70 square foot are exempt from this requirements.

• Outdoor Lighting. All luminaires mounted to the building or to other buildings on the same lot shall be high efficacy luminaires or shall be controlled by a photocontrol/motion sensor combination.

• Common Areas of Multifamily Buildings. All luminaires in the common areas of multifamily buildings shall either be high efficacy or shall be controlled by a vacancy sensor.

Luminaires that are recessed into insulated ceilings are required to be rated for insulation contact ("IC-rated") so that insulation can be placed over them. The housing of the luminaire shall be airtight to prevent conditioned air escaping into the ceiling cavity or attic, unconditioned air infiltrating from the ceiling or attic into the conditioned space.

An additional set of requirements apply to parking lots or garages with space for eight or more cars, which are typically for multifamily buildings. The nonresidential Standards for parking lots and/or garages apply in these cases (§132, §147).

Again, we suggest you click here for the complete California Energy Commission's Title 24 Requirements.

Click Here for California Title 24 Compliant Light Fixtures.

¹ IC stands for Insulation Contact meaning the housing is approved to make direct contact with insulation.
² A manual-on vacancy sensor turns lighting off automatically when no one is present. When lighting is needed it must be turned on manually with a switch.

* Click Here for a list of states that require Air Tight Recessed Downlighting